A recent court case brought against Kmart in Australia is highlighting how legislation once hailed as landmark is now worth little more than the paper it is printed on. A review of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act found “no hard evidence” it has had any real impact. Currently laws only require that companies report on their supply chains. But if they fail to report, there’s no penalty. Even worse, if they do report forced labor in their supply chain, there is no requirement to act. Using the Kmart lawsuit as a platform, rights groups and activists are saying businesses must do more. 

 Alarm bells ringing for a “long time” 

Australia currently has no import ban on goods linked to forced labor. And it doesn’t require companies to prevent modern slavery risks in their supply chains, only to report them. That situation has led to the current case against Kmart. The case is an attempt by anti-modern slavery groups to hold the retailer accountable to its anti-modern slavery pledge. But sadly, the Kmart case is likely just the tip of the slavery iceberg in Australia due to lax laws with no teeth.  

The Guardian reports Freya Dinshaw, associate legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre saying, 

“Buying clothes should never come at the expense of someone else’s freedom…(and) it shouldn’t be left to members of the public to take companies to court and force them to open their books where there are suspicions of links to modern slavery.” 

Former Labor senator Chris Evans said it was imperative that Australian businesses do more to understand their supply chains. Evans also stated that the governments must do more to force businesses to weed out goods made using modern slavery.  

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